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When asked to repair a tire on a livestock trailer Tuesday, Greg Fett noticed a sickly looking horse being trampled by other malnourished horses, authorities said.

He told his crew to take their time fixing the tire because he wanted time to call the Texarkana, Ark., police and report a trailer full of malnourished horses.

Fett, the store manager of GCR Tire on North State Line Avenue, was still at the shop when a Chevrolet truck towing a 22-foot livestock trailer came to the business needing a new tire.

“It was pure animal cruelty,” he said.

The trailer carried 11 horses, and one horse was lying on the floor. The others had trampled her.

“I told the guys to drag their feet while I called the police and waited for them to arrive,” said Fett.

After the police arrived, all 11 horses were seized, quarantined and then transferred to the Four States Fairgrounds.

Fett said he used a forklift to remove the sickest horse from the trailer floor and put her into another trailer to be transported to the fairgrounds.

ARTEX Animal Welfare League was also contacted to provide hay and water for the horses. The sickest horse lying on the trailer floor was described by Fett as a “fighter.”

“She was down for the count last night. The other horses had been trampling all over her,” he said.

Fett and Brian Adkins, maintenance director at the Four States Fairgrounds, rigged a sling using the GCR boom truck to lift the horse Wednesday morning.

The sling allowed the horse to stand and drink water and eat hay.

TAPD Officer Joe Rochelle started the investigation and asked for assistance from the city’s Animal Control Department and ARTEX.

Fairground officials gave permission to keep the horses at the livestock yard.

Rochelle’s report said the horses were “extremely malnourished and emaciated, along with some of the animals’ fur and hair missing.”

Emmons Booth, 64, and Betty Blackburn, 77, were arrested and released on a driver’s license bond for cruelty to animals in transportation, said TAPD spokesman Officer Kristi Mitchell.

Blackburn said the horses were being transported from Memphis, Tenn., to Paris, Texas, at the request of her son.

“We’re still investigating where the horses were going,” Mitchell said Thursday afternoon.

Veterinarian Dr. Jim Kunkel was summoned to check the medical conditions of the horses.

“I’m afraid you’re going to see more of this with malnourished horses. The grain price is high because of ethanol production and people can’t afford to feed them,” the veterinarian said.

Dixie Wilson, president of ARTEX, said the group will provide care of the horses until legal proceedings are completed. She said if the court awards the horses to ARTEX, they will be placed in foster care.

Wilson praised Fett and his tire shop crew.

“Thanks to him, the horses were saved,” said Wilson.